LAGOS — Nigeria's anti-corruption police said on Thursday they planned to file charges against former Vice President Dick Cheney in a $180 million bribery case involving a former unit of oil services firm Halliburton.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Tuesday summoned the country chief of Halliburton and last week detained 10 Nigerian and expatriate Halliburton staff for questioning after raiding its Lagos office.

"We are filing charges against Cheney," EFCC spokesman Femi Babafemi told Reuters, but declined to give any further details on what the charges were, or where they would be filed.

Houston-based engineering firm KBR, a former Halliburton unit, pleaded guilty last year to U.S. charges that it paid $180 million in bribes between 1994 and 2004 to Nigerian officials to secure $6 billion in contracts for the Bonny Island liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in the Niger Delta.

KBR and Halliburton, which was once headed by Cheney, reached a $579 million settlement in the United States but Nigeria, France and Switzerland have conducted their own investigations into the case.

Halliburton split from KBR in 2007 and has said that its current operations in Nigeria are unrelated.

It has described last week's EFCC raid as "an affront against justice," said its offices were ransacked and personnel assaulted, and pledged to defend its staff against what it said were "completely false and outrageous actions."..

Things are looking up for Muhammadu Buhari, two-time presidential candidate (2003 and 2007) who is currently aspiring to occupy the highest office in Nigeria come 2011.

Already, efforts to sell him berthed across the Atlantic penultimate week.

Pastor Tunde Bakare of Latter Rain Assembly, Lagos, led a powerful delegation of reformists to meet with Nigerians resident in the United States and United Kingdom on the need for them to join the campaign for the emergence of a president capable of fixing Nigeria.

Buhari’s presidential ambition ahead of 2011 election was the main agenda.

Bakare had last month endorsed Buhari for the presidency in a powerful speech in which he indicted the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for holding Nigeria down and called on Nigerians to back the “best of the North and the best of the South” to lead the country out of the mess he claimed was foisted on it by reactionary ruling class.

Save Nigeria Group (SNG), a platform with which Nigerians ended the stalemate over the constitutional crisis provoked by the late President Umaru Yar’Adua’s unexpected long medical sojourn in Saudi Arabia and his failure to hand over to then Vice President Goodluck Jonathan, has also bought into the Buhari for President agenda....

Bakare returned to Nigeria from the 10-day trip last week, basking in the joy of widespread acceptance that reportedly greeted his delegation which held series of consultations with various Nigerian groups and personalities across the Atlantic.

But just as the group is tidying up the project outside the country, the move to mobilise other major opposition parties, especially, to endorse Buhari is beginning to prove difficult as Buhari’s Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) is said to be uncomfortable about the entrance of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) into the alliance.

This is attributable to what an insider called the betrayal the former head of state suffered in the hands of some ANPP stalwarts, especially its former chairman, Edwin Ume-Ezeoke and Kano State Governor, Ibrahim Shekarau who backed the party’s participation in the Government of National Unity (GNU) after the flawed 2007 presidential poll.

Buhari, the ANPP Presidential candidate in the ballot, was in court challenging the declaration of Yar’Adua as President when the ANPP joined the GNU, sparking condemnations and allegations of betrayal by many Nigerians.

The CPC, sources said, suspects that ANPP’s participation in the process may be a ploy to weaken it or in the alternative, another attempt to spy for the ruling PDP.

Another setback of the initiative is the current refusal of some Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) chieftains, especially former Lagos Governor Bola Tinubu who prefers former Sokoto Governor, Attahiru Bafarawa – whereas former Governors Segun Osoba (Ogun); Niyi Adebayo (Ekiti) and Bisi Akande (Osun) are more comfortable with the retired general who they believe, is more known and loved across board.

Regardless, the Bakare group held two town hall meetings both at the John Hopkins University in the United States and in London where prominent Nigerians resident abroad weighed the Buhari’s candidature.

The town hall meeting was held in collaboration with some Nigerians in the Diaspora who have already signed on to the initiative.

The Bakare group was said to have told Nigerians abroad about the need for them to join the initiative to salvage the country by rallying behind Buhari’s candidature which many citizens believe, is the most credible of the packs jostling to occupy Aso Rock next year, including incumbent President Jonathan.

Sources confirmed that various interactive meetings are being held back home to mobilise support for the project which may culminate in a massive multiparty national movement akin to various platforms deployed to chase out the military.

The Bakare group was said to have explained to Nigerians abroad that Buhari alone has the knack and the integrity to move Nigeria forward.

“We had assurances from Nigerians, most of whom had become successful abroad but prefer to remain outside, that they would mobilise themselves on the need to support a candidate who can fix Nigeria and put it back on the right track,” a source privy to the deliberations across the Atlantic told Sunday Independent.

The Bakare group was also able to get assurances from the Diaspora Nigerians who want to return home, but are afraid of the consequences of poor governance by successive governments, deprived of the legitimacy to pull through.

The delegation, the sources added, held at least two town hall meetings with Nigerians abroad on the possibility of starting a mass movement of Nigerians to mobilise support for the emergence of Buhari in whom many of them have expressed confidence to take the country out of the woods.

Meanwhile, it emerged at the weekend that the Bakare group has since commenced grassroots mobilisation of Nigerians back home, a part of which was the well-attended meeting it held in Benin penultimate Friday with some key politicians across the political divides.

REJECTS TINUBU

As their supporters anxiously await the outcome of the convention, Huhuonline.com gathered that the date for the convention was fixed for a day after the PDP convention specifically to frustrate any move by governor Fashola to decamp to PDP.
Tinubu and his associates are said to be wary of the governor's closeness to the center and are already sure that in the event that ACN does not grant him his wish, he might likely want to pursue his ambition through the opposition party and win the people, who are already in sympathy with him, to his side.

The scandals unveiled by London’s Sunday Times and the Panorama, broadcast on BBC on Monday, cost England as it was beaten to the 2018 World Cup bid by Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Photo: FIFA President Sepp Blatter hands over the World Cup trophy to Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov (R) after the official announcement that Russia will host the 2018 World Cup on December 2 Photo: REUTERS

It was supposed to be a return to the “motherland of football” as Joseph Blatter, FIFA President, said on the podium moments before the envelope of the winning bid was passed to him. When the winning bid was announced, there were about eight Russians in the hall with the others in apparent shock. Russia won against all expectations but it could have been swung in their favour by the words of Putin, Russia’s President, who on Wednesday criticised England over the FIFA exposes. “I would like to note that recently we have watched with disappointment as an obvious campaign was being unleashed against members of the FIFA executive committee,” he said. “They are being smeared in dirt and compromised. I consider it as part of unscrupulous bit of competition in preparations for the selection of the host-country for the World Cup.”..

The politics of the 2018 bid

England was said to have had the best technical bid but Russia trumped all the stats by promising to inject over $10 billion to host the world. Russia will also be hosting the 2014 Winter Olympics. The Spain/Portugal bid President, Angel Villar Llona, in his presentation on Thursday said: “I love FIFA dearly but those I love the most are my colleagues in the Exco. Recently we have been criticised by many media outlets. Unfortunately for them, FIFA is a clean institution.” The defeat will be made more unpalatable as the England bid had been described by Blatter as being both excellent and remarkable. But it was not remarkable enough to be chosen. In revelations after FIFA’s members had voted in a secret ballot, it emerged that England did not make it to the second ballot.

Last minute attempts by Prime Minister, David Cameron, Prince William and David Beckham to persuade the football’s world governing body executive members came too late to douse the embarrassments suffered by these members by the revelations of the BBC and London Times. Amos Adamu and Reynald Temarii, the two FIFA executive members named in cash-for vote scandal, had been suspended and fined some sums of money following the revelations by the London Times that both members were ready to sell their bidding votes to the highest bidders. There will be recriminations from the British press but many observers feel that England shot itself in the foot by being “undiplomatic.”

Qatar trumps the USA

Qatar became the smallest country to be awarded the hosting rights of a FIFA World Cup by snagging the 2022 World Cup. The Qatar bid committee used French football legend, Zinedine Zidane, as a goodwill ambassador and said in their presentation that the World Cup project of hosting the world in 2022 could help unify the region. There was also the promise to overcome overwhelming heat by air conditioning the stadia it will build. Sheikh Mohammad bin Hamad Al-Thani, Qatar’s bid chairman, sounding all exultant after the pronouncement said: “Thank you for believing in change, thank you for believing in expanding the game, thank you for giving Qatar a chance. We will not let you down. You will be proud of us, you will be proud of the Middle East and I promise you this.”

And in what could be a final word to the backlash that will definitely come forth after the England snub, Llona had this to say, “You have already heard enough slander in the media, the bidding process is clean regardless of what they say.” The world will converge in Russia in 2018. And as the Russian Deputy Prime Minister, Igor Shuvalov, was handed the World Cup by Blatter, he celebrated by saying: “You have entrusted us with the FIFA World Cup for 2018 and I can promise, we all can promise, you will never regret it. Let us make history together.”

History will definitely be in the making as the Eastern European giants host the greatest single sport fiesta in the world while Qatar’s 1.7 million people prepare to welcome the world in 2022.

Let them go and roast in whatever stew they are cooking for themselves”-

Last Friday, Saharareporters broke the story of an attempt by President Goodluck Jonathan to bribe a visiting delegation of the Save Nigeria Group (SNG) with $50,000.

That story has been controversial since then, following a whimpering denial of the attempt by Tony Uranta, a muscle in Mr. Jonathan's inner circle, and a story in an online journal which gave the impression the convener of the SNG, Pastor Tunde Bakare, did not consider the money to have been a bribe.

In order to provide authentication of our story Saharareporters hereby publishes an audio of two telephone interviews with Bakare, upon which part of our stories were based. The interviews were conducted on November 28 and 30, and the pastor confirms the bribe attempt and the accuracy of our reporting of the issue.

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New York professor installs camera in head

.. Some students joke that their teachers have eyes in the backs of their heads.

A New York University professor is now closer to that reality, having had a camera surgically implanted into the back of his cranium.

Wafaa Bilal, an Iraqi born photography professor at the university's Tisch School of the Arts, had the procedure done at a piercing studio last month for an art project commissioned by a museum in Doha, Qatar, he said.

"This will expose the unspoken conditions we face," Bilal said Thursday. "A project like this is meant to establish a dialogue about surveillance."

The project is called "The 3rd I," and will make use of the posterior camera by taking a snap-shot photographs each minute of Bilal's everyday activities for one year, he said.

The images will then be transmitted to Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, he said, featuring an exhibit entitled "Told/Untold/Retold" in time for the museum's December 30 opening, according to a museum statement.

The thumb-sized camera is mounted on a titanium plate inserted inside the back of his head, Bilal said.

A cable runs from the camera to a computer that he carries in a custom-made shoulder bag, providing a real-time global positioning signal of his location -- viewable on a website: www.3rdi.me.

"I wanted to lose that subjectivity [of knowingly taking photographs]," Bilal said. "At the same time I wanted to capture everyday mundane images."

But the project has also raised privacy questions about the constant presence of cameras in a classroom.

University authorities have tried to allay those concerns by requiring a cover over the lens while Bilal is teaching on campus.

"We place a high value on his right to free expression in his creative work as an artist," said university spokesman John Beckman. "But as a school of the arts, we also take seriously the privacy issues his project raises."

"The 3rd I" is not Bilal's first venture into the controversial and unusual.

A 2007 project called "Domestic Tension" allowed virtual users to fire paintballs at him for an exhibit that prompted The Chicago Tribune to name Bilal artist of the year, calling it "one of the sharpest works of political art to be seen in a long time."

Bilal has said that he wants his artwork to examine broader ideas and realities.

"I see myself as a mirror reflecting some of the social conditions that we ignore," he said.

House of Ginjah crumbles

The singer cum producer Gabriel Amanyi popularly known asTerry G has disbanded his clique,House of Ginjah. According to a press statement from the singer, who recently signed a management deal with Now Music, three members of the in-group have been asked to leave the Amanyi’s T.G.P record label.

“The trio (IQ, Rakwell and Prince Banton) have no contractual agreement with the label and have been asked to leave by the label’s head ,” the release reads.The release also stated that the increasing responsibility of taking care of the group’s daily demands, improper marketing of the group’s debut album ‘8th Mainland Bridge’ and the new management deal Terry G signed with Now Music may not be unconnected with this recent development.

House of Ginjah is a quintet that includes the displaced trio, Terry G and his younger brother, Daniel Amanyi also known as D’ Money.D’Money will however remain on the label and his debut solo single is expected to be released soon..

Despite brutal questioning by a Senate select committee, Central Bank governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, yesterday stood by his comments that the National Assembly’s budget for overhead is 25.4% of the nation’s total..

Mr Sanusi withstood strong attempts to browbeat him into admitting that the figures were at least lower than that, or that he was misquoted by the media.

The public hearing convened by the Senate followed newspaper publications quoting the Central Bank governor as saying that the nation spends one-quarter of its funds on running the National Assembly, and a subsequent publication quoting the finance minster as saying he would cut the budgetary allocation to the assembly.

Mr Sanusi had at a lecture delivered at the eighth convocation of the Igbinedion University , Okada, Edo State, said 25% of the nation’s resources are spent on the lawmakers. This annoyed the Senators who ordered him to appear before them and defend his statement.

The Central Bank governor appeared on Wednesday before the Senate committee alongside the finance minister, Olusegun Aganga. However, unlike the finance minister who quickly dissociated himself from the statement that he intended cutting allocation to the assembly, Mr. Sanusi admitted saying that 25.4% of the nation’s overhead cost is spent on the National Assembly...

He held his grounds, backing his statements with records from other national dailies which quoted him correctly, and with statistics from the budget office.

Mr. Aganga who later assumed the role of an umpire told the Senators that the CBN governor’s figures were correct although they may appear wrong in another context.

The minister argued that overhead cost figures which include Service Wide Votes (money spent on maintenance of government facilities), are as legitimate those which do not include the votes.

Rage

Evidently angry, Iyiola Omisore (PDP Osun State) who led the Senate panel alleged that the CBN governor had chosen to deliberately incite Nigerians against the Assembly. He asked Mr. Aganga to state categorically whether Mr. Sanusi’s statement was right or wrong. The minister again said the statement depends on context or the way one chooses to use statistics.

Members of the Senate panel made up of four different committees could not hold back their rage against the unyielding CBN governor and frequently compared him to the more amenable finance minister, trying to coax him into some form of apology.

The Senators made no effort to hide their bias and blatantly refused to give any room to the Central Bank governor, to defend his figures and the context in which they were used.

Mr. Omisore pointedly told the harassed CBN governor at one point that the committee was not prepared to listen to him and that he must direct his responses through the finance minister. Mr Sanusi, however, occasionally barged in to make the point that his figures were right and that he got them from the director of budget’s office.

No apology

He said he would only apologise if the figures from the budget office were wrong. He insisted that, “Total Federal Government Overhead is over N500 billion and the Overhead of the National Assembly is N136.2 billion. This is exactly 25.1 per cent of total government overhead. I am quoting from the figure I got from the Budget Office. If you like, you can invite the Director-General of the Budget Office.’’ When told by Mr. Omisore, who is the Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, that the figure was wrong following a clarification by the Minister of Finance, Mr. Sanusi replied: “I don’t know where the minister got his figures.” To the calls on him to apologise, he said, “By my nature, if I do not believe that I am wrong, I do not apologise.” He urged the Senators to examine the context under which he made his statement which was actually in a lecture about factors that fuel inflationary trends.

Staking his job

After hours of fruitless attempts to get the CBN governor to admit wrongdoing and apologise to the Senators, the lawmakers seemed to deviate from the matter and begin to question the character of the governor and the annual budget of the CBN.

“We really need to be sure that the CBN governor has the character to stay in that office,” Heineken Lokpobiri (PDP Bayelsa State) said.

Other Senators took turns to tongue lash the CBN governor. They accused him of speaking too much and asked him questions like “do you enjoy your job? Do you feel like quitting?’’ And if he thinks democracy is too expensive.

“My name is Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, (my name is) not Central Bank Governor. I enjoy my job but if you want me to quit, I will honourably quit,” Mr Sanusi replied before a cheering crowd of spectators.

The unwavering Central Bank governor told the Senators that the survival of democracy is dependent on allowing people the freedom to speak. He added that he had always been involved in the fight for democracy way back to the time of June 12 and that even if the military takes over now, he will still fight them off.

The issue remained unresolved as both sides disagreed with each other’s figures. However, Mr. Omisore gave the CBN governor a stern warning not to use such figures in comments about the National Assembly anymore.

Mr. Sanusi is also expected to appear before the entire House of Representatives today to defend his statement.

Hoodlums rape 5 secondary school students in Owerri

By Chidi Nkwopara

OWERRI-Dare devil hoodlums numbering about 10, reportedly broke into the premises of Owerri Girls Secondary School last Sunday and raped five senior secondary school students.

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Confirming the ugly incident to newsmen in Owerri, the Principal, Senior Section, Mrs. Pat Uche Obasi, said the hoodlums stormed the SS3 dormitory between 1:00am and 2:00am but escaped when men of Imo State Police Command intervened.

Lamenting that the hoodlums succeeded in raping five girls, the principal also recalled that the bandits equally escaped through the hole they created in the school fence.

"These boys came from the back of the school premises. They came through a hole they created in the fence, armed with cutlasses, rods and what looked like a gun and went into SS3 dormitory. They succeeded in raping about five students in the process," the principal said.

The Divisional Police Officer, DPO, at the New Owerri Police Division, Mr. Okezie Okoroafor, confirmed the incident and explained that when he got a distress call from the former principal of the school, he quickly mobilized his men and intervened.

He said his men were able to rescue the school security officers, whose hands were tied to their legs by the rampaging rapists and assured the students and their parents that security had been beefed up in the school.

Questions:
A) Who is this group in Nigeria which Iran has influence over?
B) Is this group militant in nature?
C) What connection is there between the recent Iranian military shipments that were found in Lagos and supposedly meant for Gambia, and whoever is being supported by Iran in Nigeria?
D) What is Iran getting out of this arrangement?

US embassy cables: Washington requests biometric information for African leaders Leadership dynamics and decision-making processes of key civilian and military officials; influence of corruption and patronage in decision-making. -- Status of relations among top leaders of African Great Lakes countries, especially Kigali and Kinshasa, and Kampala and Kinshasa. -- Plans and intentions regarding political succession, including post-election transitions; indications of coup plotting. -- Leader influence on popular opinion and popular sentiments. -- Influence on government leadership of religious organizations, interest groups, ethnic groups, and military. -- The role of military, intelligence, and security services in national policy decision-making and their control of government institutions and parastatals. -- Leadership policies and actions that cause or respond to political instability or economic deterioration. -- Leadership financial resources and personal relationships. -- Government and public views about and evidence of impact of corruption and crime on internal stability and development . -- Information on political stability, sources of instability, and nature of challenges to effective governance. -- Government plans and efforts to respond to threats to political stability; strategies for addressing underlying discontent. -- Changes inside key ministries and security forces, including personal dynamics, tribal politics and factions. -- Details on identities, motives, influence, and relations among principal advisors. -- Biographic and biometric data, including health, opinions toward the US, training history, ethnicity (tribal and/or clan), and language skills of key and emerging political, military, intelligence, opposition, ethnic, religious, and business leaders. Data should include email addresses, telephone and fax numbers, fingerprints, facial images, DNA, and iris scans.

I don't want to leap to speculation, but I think this is worth thinking about further.

Wikileaks began on Sunday November 28th publishing 251,287 leaked United States embassy cables, the largest set of confidential documents ever to be released into the public domain. The documents will give people around the world an unprecedented insight into US Government foreign activities.

The cables, which date from 1966 up until the end of February this year, contain confidential communications between 274 embassies in countries throughout the world and the State Department in Washington DC. 15,652 of the cables are classified Secret.

The embassy cables will be released in stages over the next few months. The subject matter of these cables is of such importance, and the geographical spread so broad, that to do otherwise would not do this material justice.

The cables show the extent of US spying on its allies and the UN; turning a blind eye to corruption and human rights abuse in "client states"; backroom deals with supposedly neutral countries; lobbying for US corporations; and the measures US diplomats take to advance those who have access to them.

This document release reveals the contradictions between the US’s public persona and what it says behind closed doors – and shows that if citizens in a democracy want their governments to reflect their wishes, they should ask to see what’s going on behind the scenes.

Every American schoolchild is taught that George Washington – the country’s first President – could not tell a lie. If the administrations of his successors lived up to the same principle, today’s document flood would be a mere embarrassment. Instead, the US Government has been warning governments -- even the most corrupt -- around the world about the coming leaks and is bracing itself for the exposures.

The full set consists of 251,287 documents, comprising 261,276,536 words (seven times the size of "The Iraq War Logs", the world's previously largest classified information release).

The cables cover from 28th December 1966 to 28th February 2010 and originate from 274 embassies, consulates and diplomatic missions.

Eat honey, a good old-fashioned food designed by nature for us human beings!

1. Honey is the only sweetener that isn't man-made and has healing effects.

2. With about 18% water and a pH of 3-4, honey is very stable and can last for literally centuries when stored properly.

3. While empty calories from refined sugar contribute health issues and obesity, honey reduces fatty accumulationsin our cardiovascular system.

4. Unlike refined table sugar or sucrose, honey does not ferment in our stomach to pose any danger of bacterial invasion.

5. Honey is a monosaccharide, the simplest form of sugar that cannot be further broken down, passing directly from the small intestineinto the blood stream without causing any irritancy to our digestivesystem as sucrose does.

6. Honey is the most ideal fuel for burning our body fat stores during sleepdue to its 1:1 ratio of fructose and glucose.

7. As the most superior burn treatment,honey relieves pain effectively and heals wound faster with minimal scarring.

8. Honey contains vitamins and antioxidants;in fact one unique antioxidant called "pinocembrin" is only found in honey.

9. According to researchers, honey is a more effective and safer remedy for children’s coughsthan over-the-counter medicines.

10. Doctor D.C. Jarvis, author of “Folk Medicine” advised that mixing the apple cider vinegar with honeywould enhance the healing power of the vinegar.

Next June will mark 30 years since the first AIDS cases were diagnosed The moment brings not only an opportunity for reflection, but also for a renewed commitment from each of us to do our part to finally end the spread of this disease.

No matter how you look at it, through the lens of gender, sexual orientation, age, class, level of education or region of the country, Black people bear the brunt of the AIDS epidemic in America today. Those are the facts

Thankfully, a growing number of organizations that recognize that ending AIDS is a year-long effort are slowly joining the effort. Today in The world, there's a beginning of a new era of engagement on HIV/AIDS. Now, 30 years later, the country is engaged again — with a national HIV/AIDS strategy, new scientific breakthroughs, and possibly a renewed sense of hope that, someday, we will be Greater Than AIDS.

I believe we — as individuals, as a community, as a nation, as a family — can be GREATER than AIDS. Last year, the Black AIDS Institute, together with our partners at the Kaiser Family Foundation, launched a national effort to mobilize Americans in response to HIV. Greater Than AIDS is about the role that each of us can play, including getting informed, getting tested, getting treated, and getting involved. By acting together, we can be Greater than AIDS. ·

PHOTO: The Audus in Good Tmes

Aisha, the estranged wife of former governor of Kogi State, Abubabakar Audu has lost her bid to retain a property at 12301 Glen Road, Potomac, Maryland, United States of America.

Aisha was the first lady of Kogi State when Audu was the governor.

A Circuit Court in Montgomery County, Mary-land, United States held that Gold Window, LLC, a company in which Audu is believed to have interest was the rightful owner of the property in dispute.

A copy of the judgment which was delivered on 18th November, 2010 was obtained by our correspondent.

The court held thus, "The plaintiff (Gold Window, LLC) is the lawful title owner of the real property located at 12301 Glen Road, Potomac, Maryland 20854 and is entitled to immediate possession of said property."

The court further held that Aisha Audu (the defendant) was wrongfully in possession of the property.

"The defendant, and any of her guests, agents or anyone else acting in her behest, shall not remove, damage, alter, destroy or diminish any furnishings, appliances, rugs, vehicles, or other property from the home or grounds of the aforementioned real property," the court further ordered.

Audu, and his wife, Aisha, are currently entangled in a legal tussle in United States over allegations of domestic violence.

Aisha had approached the court for a final protective order and also filed a divorce suit.

Tempers rose on the floor of the Senate yesterday as senators after senators stood up in vehement condemnation of the statements credited to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi and Finance Minister Olusegun Aganga that federal lawmakers are crippling the country's economy with their outrageous pay packets.

The senators likened what they considered an attack on the federal legislature by members of the Executive arm of government to treason and “an attempt to arrest democracy”.

Sanusi had alleged last weekend that 25 per cent of the nation's total recurrent expenditure is spent on the lawmakers' upkeep, while Aganga was reported to have said on Monday that the Federal Government was considering slashing the National Assembly vote.

At the end of the heated debate which was the only business undertaken by the senators having stood down other items on the order paper, the Senate resolved to summon the minister and the CBN governor to appear before four of its committees today to clarify their statements on outrageous budget allocations to the National Assembly.

Also irked by the statements, the House of Representatives has formally summoned Aganga and Sanusi to appear before it.
The two principal managers of the national economy are expected to appear before the House in plenary to confirm the veracity of their claims that the National Assembly gulps 25 per cent of the recurrent expenditure of the country.

Meanwhile, official figures released by the Federal Government showed that its total recurrent spending this year has risen above N2 trillion.

It also emerged that only about N351.59 billion out of the N749.74 billion cashed back for projects included in the 2010 budget has been utilized by ministries, departments and agencies of government (MDAs).

Also to appear along with the duo before the Senate committees is the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Mrs. Amina Azubair, who is expected to put the records straight about the award of MDG projects, which the senators said had been erroneously placed on the shoulders of the lawmakers.

Contributing to a motion on urgent public importance raised by Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba (PDP, Cross River), majority of the senators described the statements made by the two officials as a deliberate distortion of facts to bring the National Assembly into disrepute.

While the senators were unanimous on the need to summon the federal officials, there was, however, a division on whether they should appear before the relevant standing committees, those on Appropriation, Banking, Finance and MDGs, or before the plenary.

Presenting the motion, Ndoma-Egba noted that the allegation credited to the CBN governor that the National Assembly gulps 25 per cent of the national budget was false and misleading.
He said it was a calculated attempt to bring the National Assembly to disrepute.

Senator Bode Olajumoke, in his contribution, lamented that the false information published in the Nigerian media was always relayed and reviewed by international media, saying this had gone a long way to damage the integrity of members of the National Assembly, portraying them as “rogues”.

In his contribution, Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu blamed the misinformation on ignorance on the part of those who should be aware of the facts.

Senator Patrick Osakwe (PDP, Delta) described the allegation as an issue of “calling a dog a bad name in order to hang it”.
He said Sanusi and Aganga should appear before the Senate to state the sources of their information, adding that the Senate and the National Assembly should no longer take such false allegations lightly in the future.

Senator Dahiru Umar informed his colleagues that the presentation of the news on BBC Hausa Service was severe and damaging, as some commentators called for the military to sack members of the National Assembly.
On his part, Senator Anthony Manzo said the Senate should not hesitate to sack the CBN governor if there were reasons to do so, since it has power to do so with two-thirds majority.

According to him, a situation where those who were screened and approved by the Senate were always turning round to attack it should no longer be tolerated.

Senate Spokesman, Senator Ayogu Eze, said the repeated publication of falsehood against the National Assembly was becoming embarrassing to the families of lawmakers.
He said the allegation amounted to treason, as it was calculated to bring down the National Assembly, which is the symbol of democracy...

Senate President David Mark said no lawmaker was involved in contract awards, stressing that the continued attack on members of the National Assembly would no longer be acceptable.
He said: “We have said this over and over, and yet they still keep repeating it. Once they hear it, they jump at it. I think we need to invite them to explain to us on live television.”

Chairman, House Committee on Air Force, Hon. John Halims Agoda, paved the way for the decision to summon Aganga and Sanusi when he moved a motion expressing concern that the utterances of Sanusi had denigrated the National Assembly and brought the lawmakers to ridicule in the minds of the public.

Agoda said the allegations made by the CBN governor could not be substantiated both on the grounds of budgetary facts and moral inclinations of the National Assembly towards the total regeneration of the Nigerian society.

He argued that the utterances could not be swept under the carpet considering the weight of the allegations and the damage they portend for the institutional image of the National Assembly.

According to Agoda, “there are grave implications for the electoral values of members who have now been cast in the image of rapacious financial scavengers of the national treasury.”
The motion was unanimously adopted with several lawmakers initially demanding the resignation of the CBN governor, while the moderates among them said they should be invited to enable the House to do a forensic analysis of their allegations.

The House resolved among other things to henceforth scrutinise the budgets of about 31 MDAs including the CBN to ensure that there were no leakages.
The N4.6 trillion 2010 budget has a capital vote of N1.7 trillion or 30 per cent of the appropriation.
The record, however, showed a sharp rise in personnel cost from N966.742 billion in 2009 to N1.1 trillion in September 2010, while overhead was estimated at N633.128 billion in 2010.

Inspection fees gulped N45.141 billion, while external debt was put at $0.462 billion by September 2010.
The 2010 utilization rate of 46.9 per cent is considered unimpressive by experts when compared to the N913.36 billion put forward in last fiscal regime.

The Accountant-General of the Federation, Alhaji Ibrahim Dankwaabo, told journalists at the 2009/2010 score card on the activities of the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF) briefing in Abuja yesterday that the low utilisation might have been caused by delays in the release of the funds to the MDAs.

He said he was hopeful that the capital budget performance would show remarkable improvements before the end of the year.
He also tied the low utilisation to the political crisis occasioned by the poor health of late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.
The accountant-general also disclosed that the total statutory disbursement to the federal, state and local governments between 2009 and September 2010 stood at over N5.5 trillion.

This, he said, was in addition to Value Added Tax (VAT) of about N865.09 billion distributed in the period under review.
He said: “The sum of N1.19 trillion was cash backed in year 2009 of which N913.26 billion or 76.6 per cent was utilized. For 2010, the sum of N749.74 billion was cash backed of which N351.59 billion was utilized as at 30th October 2010. This translates to a capital performance of 46.9 per cent.”

He said statutory allocation amounting to N2.7 trillion had so far been released between January and September 2010.
“This year is a special one in the sense that we encountered some challenges. We had a new president; the Federal Executive Council was reconstituted. But it is not too bad that we have that type of utilization rate considering the political challenges that we had,” he said.

Nigeria currently occupies the number three position in the worldwide cybercrime trends index, Nigeria’s anti-graft boss said yesterday...

Speaking on the first day of the 1st West African cybercrime summit in Abuja, the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Farida Waziri, said that Nigeria comes third behind US and UK.

At the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, where an elite group of anti-graft agencies, diplomats, and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) companies gathered, the central theme was how to fight the rising cybercrime rate in Nigeria and West Africa.

As pointed out by the EFCC boss, cybercrime is spreading from Nigeria into the surrounding West African countries.

“We have noticed a gradual movement of cyber criminals from Nigeria to neighbouring West African States,” she said, adding that four African countries - two in West Africa, fall into the top 10 cybercrime trends index.

“What should be frightening for us is that only about 20% of the West African population has access to Internet connectivity, and it may well mean that if we have the level of connectivity of Europe and North America, we will perpetually remain in the top 10,” she said..

Archaic Laws

The Chair, Senate committee on Drugs, Narcotics, Financial Crimes, and Anti-Corruption, Sola Akinyede, further expressed fears that Nigerian laws are not adaptable to current trends in crime fighting, adding that this has negatively affected the performance of the EFCC.

“The Nigerian Evidence Act is both archaic and out of sync. The Nigerian Evidence Act does not recognise the existence of computers. The credit cards, I understand, operate by magnetic impulse. The data on the credit card are not recognised under the Nigerian evidence law.

“I was trying to remember how to tender evidence with respect to photographs in court. There was one word I was trying to remember. That word is negatives. It’s a long time since I used that word, but under the Nigerian law today, if you want to tender a photograph, you have to tender the negatives. In the world of digital photography, there is nothing like negatives,” Mr. Akinyede said.

He, however, said that he had sponsored a bill at the National Assembly to amend the Nigerian Evidence Act, which has gone through the second reading.

“Unfortunately, because of the imminent elections and the consequent constitution amendments that are required, most ammendments with the National Assembly have been kept in the back burner.

“The primary focus and interest of the National Assembly is the electoral act and the constitution amendment. I, therefore, hope that as soon as we finish the constitution ammendments, the National Assembly will pass the law,” he said.

Working with Microsoft

Emmanuel Onyeje, the general manager of Microsoft Anglophone West Africa, reiterated the commitment of the American ICT company to network with the EFCC and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), to fight the cybercrime menace in Nigeria and West Africa.

“Cybercrime is not about me or anyone in Nigeria. Everyone is affected. Everyone is vulnerable. Fighting cybercrime is one of the few things that I believe can unite mankind. So, it is something that we must all come together to solve,” he said.

Mr. Onyeje also said that Microsoft will lead the fight against cybercrime, especially by creating awareness of the menace.